ifmaz
Posts: 844
Joined: 7/22/2015 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: PeonForHer I think you're asking questions that assume far too much. There are huge debates about how and in what ways governments are always able to manufacture and preserve consent amongst populaces. This is true in the UK (where, of course, most of the forces of law are as unarmed as the populace), as well as elsewhere across the first world democracies. There's a huge literature in most university libraries on this - none of which seems to mean anything at all to many of those who talk about the 2nd and their simple view of the State versus civilians as - it seems to me - some picture of a battle-in-the-hills like the Old West, only without John Wayne and all the stetsons. In practice and in most places, it never gets anywhere near to the stage of a civil war. Governments generally know where discontent is going to kick off first and who are the main people that they need to watch - and, if necessary, later to 'eliminate'. That's especially true, nowadays, with the surveillance capabilities they have - capabilities that are hugely expanded beyond what existed even a couple of decades ago. What this means in practice is that, for instance, the kind of gunster who reckons he's armed to the teeth and therefore able to take on the military will get himself noticed as soon as he starts to make the 'kind of noises' that show he's actually going to try to do just that. Forget the gunfight. He just gets arrested quietly and discreetly on his way back from church one Sunday morning. Or whenever the agents involved know he's least going to be expecting it. I'm sure the firearm community has its subset of people who believe their 8 rifles will singlehandedly fend off the next Hitler. Still, the argument of "the military is more powerful" is not an adequate reason (even assuming it's true) to abolish the 2nd Amendment. I think as more draconian firearm laws put into place, more civil disobedience will take place. Much like Germany, Brazil, and the UK have crypto-parties, perhaps the US will have AR15 building parties (perhaps starting with an 80% lower which is not classified as a firearm), hopefully in addition to crypto parties and ideally with the same attendees.
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